Anna Sui Is Bewitched by Wealth and Another Time for Fall/Winter 2025

Nothing is ever truly lost in fashion. Should a style of a blouse or cut of a neckline become undesirable, it will become alluring again, given enough time. Anna Sui always cherishes the old, the vintage, and makes it new again in her collections—be it inspiration from a Degas painting or incorporating sartorial language of another era—and the designer did this, once more, in her typical fantastical fashion, for her latest runway, held Saturday afternoon during New York Fashion Week.

The catwalk beheld a true galore of color and texture, all tinged with a romantic sense of the past, particularly decades like the 1920s and 1960s. Tartan suiting, jewel tones, Mongolian fur trims, cloche hats, and delicate embroidery bring this to life in the collection. There is tantalizing newness in leopard bucket hats, a paillettes coat, and sheer blouses. This all makes sense because Sui was inspired by the “madcap heiress” for Fall/Winter 2025, or “women who would come to inherit fortunes beyond belief, only to spend it on jewelry, art and men by their life's end,” as show notes reveal. Muses this season include Barbara Hutton, Doris Duke, and Peggy Guggenheim. That rich feeling was as present in the clothes as it was during the show, as songs like “I Found a Million Follar Baby” by Barbara Streisand and “Easy Living” by Bryan Ferry played.

Shoes on the runway, all by John Fluevog, complemented the maximalist nature of the clothes. Jewelry echoed that “madcap heiress” look through tassel earrings, long beaded necklaces, and more, co-designed with Erickson Beamon. Sunglasses on the runway were anything but traditional: Each pair, made with Mondottica, channeled something loud and ostentatious. After all, the madcap heiress’ “unfettered tastes and reckless abandon, allowed them to live lives that were purely driven by fabulosity, transcending the mundane to seemingly inhabit alternate realities altogether,” show notes continue. Other cheeky accessories like arm warmers and low-slung waist belts signaled a personal extravagance.

The designer “recognizes society's collective yearning and need for an escape, extrapolating that these desires reflect a greater need for self-expression and inspired prerogatives, jovially answering this call with a will to dream,” show notes continue. The collection achieves just this. Held at the National Arts Club near Gramercy Park, guests at the runway show included industry legends like Sofia Coppola and her daughter Cosima Mars, in addition to Princess Nokia.

Click through the gallery below to see every look from Anna Sui’s Fall/Winter 2025 collection.